The ubiquity of broadband connectivity and the advancements in home networking technologies introduce into market a new breed of consumer premises equipment which Altech Multimedia has termed Hybrid Home Gateway (H2G). Bringing together Altech Mulitmedia‘s expertise in developing, designing, manufacturing and testing set top box software and technology, as well as integrating the DVB stack, Middleware, Conditional Access and Applications, with Intel‘s powerful chip technology, a high level of chip integration and extensive partner ecosystem is considered a major milestone in addressing the rising markets of Broadband/Broadcast entertainment products.

“We are thrilled with Intel’s high performance products for this market. We have developed a strong and unique range of experiences and know how, which are now combined to form outstanding Hybrid Home Gateway consumer products,“ says Alan Sullivan, CTO of Altech Multimedia. “Although the H2G device is a consumer communication equipment with a low scaled price approach, engineering wise it is a highly sophisticated device demanding a lot of design, integration, development and testing challenges both on the hardware and on the software front.“

“At Intel, we have made it our mission to create and extend computing technology to connect and enrich the lives of every person on earth in this decade,” said Videsha Proothveerajh, South Africa Country Manager at Intel. “With reliable companies like Altech Multimedia, we are making it a reality. The innovation of Altech Multimedia‘s technologies results in products that are far more than the sum of its parts.”

At the core of H2G (™) concept is the home gateway device that provides the consumer, benefits such as broadband Internet connection sharing, Firewall security, VPN connectivity, IP telephony, audio/video streaming, Wireless LAN connectivity, GSM/3G. From a hardware perspective the H2G may therefore range from a simple IPTV connectivity to a complete multi screen gateway server offering transcoding and standard Digital Right Management (DRM) capabilities.

The heart of H2G is the multi application framework allowing seamless user experiences across multiple operator based, open source and Android developments. It allows configuration for the growing IPTV Telco customers that require hybrid services. Each of the H2G home gateway device offers a unique personality and may target a particular segment of converged consumers with specific usage needs.

Essentially the H2G gateway device provides the necessary connectivity features to enable the consumer to exploit the advantages of a networked home. In technical terms, a home gateway device does the bridging/routing, protocol and address translation between external broadband network and the internal home networks. It acts as a secure firewall, and also is the focal point for applications such as Voice/Video Over IP, home automation etc. Home gateway devices allow the residential users to access their home networks and to control various devices from a remote location via Internet.

For the Service Provider, the home gateway device provides the following benefits:
• New revenue streams due to new and differentiating services/applications
• Ability to deliver multiple services through a single consumer premises equipment
• Ability to reduce the expensive truck roll costs